He calls himself the “The ‘Real' hope for America – not hype,” according to his MySpace page, and if the number of friends he has on there is any indication – nearly 200,000 – Ron Paul isn't fading into the dust, at least not with the technologically savvy generations.
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“The very good thing that has happened here in the last two years is that government's credibility is crashing,” Paul said. “There's been way too much trust in the government. That has been our moral hazard over many, many centuries. Trust in the government that it's here to help you, it's here to protect you … they're going to scare everybody to death to try to argue the reason why you have to have big government, and you really don't. What we need is more faith, more confidence and a better understanding of what individual liberty is all about.”
Phi Beta Iota: WIRED Magazine has put together a number of questions that ably illustrate the confusion in the public mind over why we are in Afghanistan and what that has to do with Pakistan. Based on the history of the Cold War, which appears to have been a Fity Year Wound, In Search of Enemies, or as General Smedley Butler, USMC (Ret) put it, War is a Racket, we have to wonder. When one combines the scandals associated with health care (50% waste according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers), the economy (a fraudulent Federal Reserve and phantom wealth leveraged by Wall Street to the detriment of the commonwealth), and all of the other pressing problems facing America, the larger question is not really about Afghanistan or Pakistan but rather about process. Is America a democracy? Is our policy process reasoned and informed? Is the public interest being served? Does the White House really understand The True Cost of Conflict/Seven Recent Wars and Their Effects on Society?
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday voiced his opposition to legislation calling for regular audits of the Fed’s monetary policies, but 79% of Americans think auditing the Fed is a good idea.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just seven percent (7%) of adults oppose auditing the Federal Reserve and making those results available to the public. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure.
White Americans have long resisted the idea of reparations to the descendants of slaves.We examine the psychological basis of such resistance, primarily testing the possibility that resistance may be a function of Whites’ perception of the ongoing cost of being Black. White participants (n = 958) across twelve independent samples (varying in age, student status, and geographic location) were asked variations of the question: How much should you be paid to continue to live the remainder of your life as a Black person? Participants generally required low median amounts, less than $10,000, to make the race change, whereas they requested high amounts, $1,000,000, to give up television.
Phi Beta Iota: Reprinted in full to allow emphasis and easier reading. Original source at logo, “as is.” Recommended by our physical gold colleagues.
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Several financial events this week indicate something big is about to happen, something that may make the 2008 credit crisis seem rather benign. First, the IMF announced that it is liquidating its gold holdings, the world's 3rd largest stash after the US and Germany. Buyers included the governments of India, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. Do you think the IMF would be selling gold at a market bottom? Bubble #1 about to burst- Gold.
Why Criminal Hackers Must Not Be Rewarded Part 1: The Fruit of the Poisoned Tree
By M. E. Kabay, 11/30/2009
In 1995, I participated in a debate with distinguished security expert Robert D. Steele, a vigorous proponent of open-source intelligence. We discussed the advisability of hiring criminal hackers. Perhaps readers will find the polemic I published back then of interest today. I’m sure it will provoke vitriolic comments from the criminal hacker community.
1. An audit of Fort Knox will probably disclose that USA has half its claimed holdings in gold.
2. China is leveraging the considerable buying power of its multi-billion population in a very clever manner.
3. China has 80% or more of all the other precious metals including those needed to create green energy, still in the ground–the rest of the world will pay dearly for them The USA has failed to do a current strategic resources survey and has no strategy for getting into the future in any semblance of peace and prosperity for all.
Below the Fold: Reference Links on Chinese Strategic Minerals
